In a way, the war was worth it because Saddam Hussein really was a nightmare. You have to be practical. It seems there was no other way. I had hoped Saddam could have been overthrown by the Iraqi people or through a surgical strike. But that didn't happen.

One thing is very clear - the Americans were very ready for a military operation. They had planned very carefully and it was very successful. But it seems to me they have no plan whatsoever for after the war so they are very chaotic, they don't really understand what's going on. They are too dependent on people they've brought in from outside, such as Ahmad Chalabi [the Pentagon-backed Iraqi exile], which is a big mistake.

I hope the Americans can do a good job now, for the sake of the Iraqi people. I hope they keep their promise to rebuild Iraq and build democracy. The only way forward is to create an interim government of technocrats - and there are a lot - from inside and outside the country.

There are people like Adnan Pachachi [the former Iraqi foreign minister and now an adviser to the United Arab Emirates]. He is honest and everyone respects him. I'm sure he can find and form a technocratic government.

The interim government's mission would be to focus on restoring order and security in major cities. As for the political parties, they should work with the Americans on writing a permanent constitution.

After that - say about one year - there should be a referendum and then we start to build democratic institutions, political and legal. But for now, the political factions have to step aside and let an interim government get on with the immediate job at hand of restoring order and security. Meanwhile the UN should have a major, not a marginal, role to give the whole process legitimacy.

I was surprised by how quick the war was. I thought there would be resistance and at first there was in small towns like Umm Qasr, but the big surprise was Baghdad. Now we understand the Republican Guard was not willing to defend the regime.

I think the decision to get rid of Saddam came when Bush included Iraq in the axis of evil in 2002. The Americans basically wanted to change the regime after September 11 and to redeploy its forces from Saudi Arabia.

I have no problem with the US having bases in Iraq, but if the country is stable - which is important for stability in the whole region - the Americans won't need bases there. They already have bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.

I am planning to go back in August, depending on the security situation. It is too chaotic now. I want to be able to visit my family and do my job. I have been away more than 23 years. I haven't seen my mother all this time nor my three sisters. My father died two years ago. Mark Tran